This blog is affiliated with a course at the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I'll try to use it to share relevant news and information with the class, and anyone else who's interested.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Google I/.O Announcements - Now a medium

Google is sponsoring a big event for tech types and reporters, called Google I/O. Among the announcements are several indicating Google is making serious moves into both the content and mobile markets. Here's a glimpse at some of the big announcements:

Google Music (or at least "Music Beta by Google) was launched, offering users the ability to upload 20,000 of your tunes initially, providing a cloud hosting service similar to Amazon's that would allow you to stream from your library to any device supporting Flash. The full launch of a music store was delayed by issues in getting licenses from major record labels.Engadget has a comparison of streaming music services.

Not content with sound, Google also announced the addition of video and movie rentals to the Android Market, mirroring the recently expanded YouTube rental inventory. Users can access the movies Via PCs and Google TV through YouTube-Movies, and will soon be able to use Android Market for play on smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2 or higher. In additions, purchases on one platform reportedly can also be accessed from the other.

Speaking of Google TV, the folks at Google announced that the Google TV platform will get an upgrade to the new Android 3.1 platform this summer. The upgrade will provide users with access to the Android Market. Google also confirmed that the Google TV app will be included in Sony, Samsung, and Vizio TVs offering internet access, and Logitech Google TV set-top boxes.